Unions DO NOT HAVE "THE RIGHT" to disturb the peace and annoy people in their own homes. We have been harassed by YELLING from CLEAN Car Wash Campaign pickets for 11 months! (since Oct.2009). WE DEMAND the pickets STOP the shouting and march peacefully. Babies cannot nap, home workers cannot concentrate and earn a living, students cannot study, residents (a "captive audience") are FED UP with picket screaming heard inside their homes!

September 30, 2010 – The Los Angeles Police Department issued noise citations (LAMC 116.01) to union pickets who have yelled at The Robertson Car Wash for 11 months, disturbing the peace and tranquility of a large area of the residential community.

I am writing on behalf of the South Robertson Neighborhoods Council (“SORO NC”)
and the residents surrounding the Robertson Car Wash at 2460 S. Robertson Blvd.
SORO NC represents the 45,000 residents and businesses in our area, and as you
know, it is our charter to voice their interests and concerns within the larger City of
Los Angeles government.

The Robertson Car Wash has been the focus of intense union organizing efforts for
the past 11 months. During that period, nearby residents have consistently reported
excessive noise and harassment from picketers. The noise, they say, has been
beyond disruptive to their quality of life, and extensively documented both on their
website (https://picketnoise.wordpress.com/) and in numerous calls, meetings and
correspondence with West LAPD, the City Attorney’s office, labor lawyers, and City
Council representatives.

While use of bullhorns by the picketers has been reduced, the problem remains. On
September 10, 2010 residents delivered a petition to City leaders and LAPD asking
for additional help and—specifically—the enforcement of LAMC 116.01 prohibiting
“loud, unnesessary and unusual noise” that “disturbs the peace or quiet of any
neighborhood or which causes discomfort or annoyance to any reasonable person of
normal sensitiveness residing in the area.”

At our September 16, 2010 Board meeting, after extensive discussion with
neighbors, West LAPD officers and LAPD labor relations officers, SORO NC voted to
write to you on behalf of our residents for a clear, written explanation as to why this
ordinance is not being enforced. Our LAPD partners tell us that they take their cues
from the City Attorney’s office, and so we ask for a comprehensive explanation for
why these officers are not being empowered to enforce this specific city ordinance.
Our next public meeting is on October 21st and we request your written response
before this date.

While recognizing the right to organize (and expressing no opinion on the arguments
pro and con for doing so at this location), the City must protect the rights of the
residents to live without undue and excessive noise.

The Los Angeles Police Foundation creates partnerships to provide resources and programs that help the police to serve at their highest level and to enhance LAPD-community relations. Formed in 1998, the Foundation provides funding for Police Department programs and equipment not included in the City budget. The foundation makes an important contribution to the effectiveness of the Los Angeles Police Department. It is dedicated to preventing crime, saving lives and making communities better and safer. Your tax-deductible contribution to the Los Angeles Police Foundation affiliates you with one of the finest law enforcement agencies in the world. Please visit: www.lapolicefoundation.org/

For 11 months the basic rights of residents to peace and tranquility INSIDE their homes has been abused by the Clean Carwash Campaign (Carwash Workers Organizing Committee of the AFL-CIO/United Steelworkers aka CWOC – USW). Residents have continually made it clear that the pickets at the Robertson Car Wash are TOO LOUD, and they are violating our most basic rights to peace and quiet.

The City of Los Angeles is currently NOT protecting residents rights to quiet either. We desperately need the LAPD to uphold noise enforcement to help residents from this horrific audible assault and psychological harassment. The Clean Carwash Campaign organizers and its union lawyers have not brought their pickets noise under control, despite our begging that they do so.

Their picketing is a form of speech that, by virtue of its LOUD VOLUME, repetition of message and hostile presentation, is disruptive of our residential environment irrespective of their message.

The picketing that is at the Robertson Car Wash is (in our opinion) intended to do more than convey a message of opposition to this business. As both “captive” witnesses and victims, we believe their unusually loud noise is intended to cause substantial psychological distress and intimidation to the car wash (owner, workers, and customers) as well as to residents in the surrounding neighborhood. We have dozens of videos that have recorded the hostility, volume and intrusiveness of the same message with each repeated assertion. As is often the function of picketing, during the periods of protest the Car Wash and residents are held under a virtual siege.

Picketing for the purpose of imposing psychological harm to listeners is NOT constitutionally protected. Their picketing is not friendly, and it certainly is not innocuous. It is an assault on us residents which unreasonably and with great burden interferes with our daily lives and the privacy of our homes, and does NOT serve a reasonable communicative purpose.

Many residents have not only suffered with the noise (by way of stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, constant state of agitation) — we have been working long hours FOR NO PAY to try to get that which we have ALREADY PAID FOR in taxes, namely, “noise enforcement”. We are fighting for our rights and for the quality of our home lives. The City of Los Angeles and the AFL-CIO should not force us to endure this any longer. It is too much to ask of us. Many of our residents ARE members of various unions, by the way, and they, too, are suffering with the picket shouting inside their homes and they want it to stop.

Residents are a “captive audience” to picket YELLING. Our choice to hear their speech cannot be made freely. Therefore, the burden is 100% unreasonable. The greatest justification for regulating expression based on the “captive audience” doctrine is when the speech is highly intrusive on the right to choose not to listen and the burden of avoiding the speech is extreme.

FREE SPEECH IS NOT permissible in all places and at all times. The home is certainly of the highest order in a free and civilized society. There simply is no right to force speech into the home of an unwilling listener. It does not matter where pickets are standing when they are yelling. If their speech is loud enough to be heard inside our homes, it is too loud!